Get into your Keds, Spikes or a pair of sandals, be in your track/jog suits or a pair of denims and t-Shirt but make sure to be there at the IIT-Madras for the ‘Terry Fox Run’ Chennai’s marathon of hope at 8:00am on Sunday 25th August 2013. Walk, jog or cycle the 6 kilometers into the lush green woods of IIT to support the cause of children affected by cancer of the eye (Retinoblastoma).
Terry Fox was a Canadian who embarked on a 8,530 kilometres to raise funds for Cancer research and to spread awareness, he ran in icy cold weather, on roads full of ice and snow, he ran with an artificial leg as one of his legs had been amputated due to osteogenic sarcoma a rare bone cancer, he ran in-between painful chemotherapy sessions and often with blood oozing out of the stub of his artificial leg, he had to give up his run after completing 5,374 kilometers in 143 days when a relapse of Cancer spread to his lungs.
The Terry Fox Foundation conducts similar runs the world over and has so far collected more than $500 million for Cancer relief, it has chosen Sankara Nethralaya a forerunner in the research and treatment of Retinoblastoma or Cancer of the eye which occurs mainly in children, as its partner in fighting Cancer and as the beneficiary of its financial assistance.